Railway Scam Exposed: Now, You may get confirmed train ticket at 8 am

Bengaluru, March 19: Are you planning for a holiday in coming festive season but not getting confirmed train tickets? Don't be heartbroken, now you too may get a fair chance to get a confirmed train tickets at 8 am.

Untill now, getting a confirmed ticket at 8 am was like winning a war. Tickets in all popular routes used to be sold within one minute. But now, Indian Railways finally cracked the puzzle. One big railway scam has been exposed.

Indian Railways receives several complaints from passengers who claim that they are not able to get confirmed tickets even after turning up at the ticket counters at 8 am, when they open across India.

Now, an internal investigation by the railways exposed a chain of touts who hoarded 4,000 confirmed berths everyday within one minute of the computer reservation system being thrown open to public.

According to the investigating officers, the touts have been taking advantage of a 'facility' in the passenger reservation software. The group of the touts across the country booked tickets at popular route and sell those tickets at a higher rates to the needy passengers.

The special facility in the software allows someone who has already purchased a ticket to alter journey details and book another train within seconds at the last moment.

According to the probe reports, the touts have been buying tickets for relatively less popular trains a day earlier, and then swap them for tickets on popular trains. This process helps them to get confirmed tickets within one minute since their booking details were already updated in the software.

Ajay Shukla, Member (Traffic), Railway Board, has been quoted as saying, "Touts would buy any ticket a day in advance and the next day, they would get ticket details changed. The booking clerk merely had to generate another PNR with the passenger details already fed into the system a day earlier. This took seconds."

"We have now disabled this facility for the first hour after the system opens," he added.